REINCARNATION

Millions of people worldwide believe in the ‘transmigration’ of the human soul from one physical body to another. The process of reincarnation continues until the soul reaches its full maturity and perfection when it will rejoin the source – God or the ‘Universal Soul’.

Most contemporary monotheistic religions reject the idea of reincarnation. However early Christian texts allude to the soul’s rebirth but the theorists of the time could not agree. Constantine in AD 320 took it upon himself to resolve the issue and ruled reincarnation out of Christian teaching.

Many spiritual practices including Buddhism suggest that the soul returns life after life until it is sufficiently evolved to remain in the eternal Bardo, the state of Nirvana.

It is thought that we reincarnate in soul groups and experience many different levels of relationship throughout various lives; choosing who will parent us and the key events that will provide the opportunities for the soul’s growth; even seemingly negative and traumatic situations.

Dr Ian Stevenson (now deceased) was a psychiatrist internationally recognized for his research into reincarnation. During a period of 40 years, he investigated over 3,000 cases of children around the world who recalled having past lives, some having birth marks or birth defects that matched the physical trauma to the body, which caused the death of the life before.

Fascinatingly it has been found that some chronic mental health issues such as phobias, which have not responded to orthodox treatment, have been cured with hypnotic regression to a ‘past life’. It is suggested that unresolved traumas from the previous incarnation are brought through to the current life. This may be caused by a traumatic death (for example from drowning) which might manifest as an irrational fear (of water in this example) that appears to have no original basis in the current life. Whatever the true cause of these phobias, the process of revisiting the past ‘memories’ does appear to have a profoundly healing impact on the psyche.

Dr Brian Weiss an American Psychotherapist has written and lectured widely on his experience with patients who have spontaneously recalled memories of past lives that have had some relevance for a trauma in their current incarnations. He has also researched the state of consciousness in the dimensions between lives.